Institutional Review Board Website

An Institutional Review Board (IRB) has been established at UFH to protect the welfare of research participants. The IRB is equivalent to an ‘Ethics Committee on Human Research’. All research projects involving human subjects, conducted at facilities owned and operated by UFH, must be reviewed and approved by the UFH IRB.

Statement of principles

The UFH IRB adheres to the basic principles outlined in the Belmont Report and the Declaration of Helsinki. According to these principles, the health or well-being of the research participants must not be exposed to unreasonable risk, and the rights and welfare of all research subjects must be adequately protected.

Organization

The IRB consists of a Chair, a Deputy Chair and a reasonable number of members appointed by the UFH Vice President of Medical Affairs. The membership collectively possesses the qualifications and experience to review and evaluate the science, medical aspects, and ethics of proposed studies involving human subjects. All the members have been certified for training of ethics in human research and have undergone training in Good Clinical Practice.

Educational programs

The UFH CCR regularly provides training to IRB members, potential investigators and staff at UFH on the ethics in human research, Good Clinical Practice in human research, and methods in clinical research. The topics of the ongoing training seminars include: The definitions and importance of clinical research; history and protection of research subjects; the principles of ethics in human research; the responsibilities of investigators and Institutional Review Board; categories and designs of clinical research; and the process of informed consent in clinical research.